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Monday, July 05, 2010

Disgraceful that 6 Music has been saved. When will the BBC share in the pain?

Some people suggest that Montgomerie's website, ConservativeHome, is the paid-for pipe-hole through which Lord Ashcroft pipes his thoughts. That would, of course, be confusing ConservativeHome with David Cameron.

Montgomerie's sour little moan that something which a million people enjoy is going to carry on shows a lack of any grasp of the detail here - if 6Music continues, the nine million quid which would otherwise have been saved will have to come from somewhere else in the Corporation budget - it's not like closing 6Music would mean the BBC giving back a few quid to licence fee payers.

Just wanting a network to shut because you believe the BBC should be hurt is, well, the sort of nasty, spiteful reaction that will be familiar to anyone who remembers the last Conservative government.

The BBC didn't screw up the economy. 6Music listeners didn't screw up the economy - maybe there might be the odd investment banker amongst them, but generally. George Osborne might be pursuing an ideological series of deep cuts to the State, but just because he's dead set on making the nation a more miserable place doesn't mean the BBC has to follow suit.

Still, it's not like Montgomerie doesn't know a thing or two about value for money, as a little later on he tweets:

At 62p per person per year, the Queen is excellent value for taxpayers' money http://is.gd/dg1Uk

6Music costs 17p per person per year, helps generate income for the UK creative industries, cross-subsidises bands and artists and entertains a million people a week. More importantly, it doesn't have numerous other forms of income, own large swathes of the country or require extra inputs of support in the form of police protection when it goes out. I'd argue that 6Music is excellent value for your licence pence.